John R. DelaneyWestinghouse WE28UX8310With the Westinghouse WE28UX8310 you get you a big-screen 4K monitor for $450. You also get full adjustability and a good selection of video inputs, but performance could be better.

With the Westinghouse WE28UX8310 you get you a big-screen 4K monitor for $450. You also get full adjustability and a good selection of video inputs, but performance could be better.

If you've been itching for a big-screen Ultra-High-Definition (UHD or 4K) monitor, but have a budget that tops out at $500, the Westinghouse WE28UX8310 ($449.99) is worth a look. This affordable 28-inch 4K display has a Twisted Nematic (TN) panel with a 3,840-by-2,160 resolution and is equipped with multiple video inputs and an ergonomic stand. However, its performance is no match for our Editors' Choice midrange 4K monitor, the Acer S277HK.

Design and Features The WE28UX8310's 28-inch TN panel has a matte anti-glare coating and is housed in a 12-pound black cabinet with 0.6-inch bezels. The cabinet is supported by a fully adjustable black and silver stand that provides 4.3 inches of height, 20 degrees of tilt, and 90 degrees of swivel maneuverability. It also lets you rotate the panel 90 degrees for Portrait-mode viewing.

The rear of the cabinet holds multiple video ports. Here, you'll find three HDMI 2.0 inputs, one of which supports Mobile High-definition Link (MHL), one HDMI 2.0 input, one DisplayPort input, and one DVI input. There's also an audio input and a headphone jack, but you won't find any USB ports on this monitor.

A Power switch and four function buttons are positioned along the right side of the lower bezel. The buttons are used to access and navigate the WE28UX8310's picture settings menu, which includes Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, and Picture Format (aspect ratio) adjustments. You also get Color Temperature and Picture-in-Picture (PIP) settings, but this monitor lacks the advanced 6-Axis Color and Gamma settings that you get with the Acer S277HK, and it doesn't have picture presets.

The WE28UX8310 is covered with a somewhat stingy one-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight (most monitors come with a three-year warranty). Westinghouse also leaves it up to you to supply your own cables; only a power cord and a resource CD are included in the box.

Performance The WE28UX8310 turned in mixed test results. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, red and blue color measurements, represented here by the colored dots, are relatively close to their ideal CIE coordinates, which are represented by the boxes. However, green is entirely outside of its zone. You probably won't notice the skewed greens in everyday use unless you're working with photos or other color critical content, as there was no obvious tinting or oversaturation in my tests.

Gray-scale performance was also less than ideal in testing. The TN panel had trouble displaying the two darkest shades of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-scale test, resulting in muddy shadow detail. It also had trouble displaying lighter shades of gray; it was hard to distinguish between the two lightest shades, which appeared whitewashed. As a result, highlight detail in my test photos took a hit, and the overall picture lacked the pop that you get with a good In-Plane Switching (IPS) monitor like the NEC MultiSync EA275UHD. You also don't get the wide viewing angles that you get with an IPS panel; the WE28UX8310 exhibited significant color shifting at around 45 degrees from center.

The display's 4-millisecond pixel response did a good job of handling fast motion in my Crysis 3 PC gaming tests, but there were rare instances of ghosting when the action was fast against a dark background. Results were similar in my Call of Duty: Black Ops gaming tests on my Sony Playstation 4. That said, the WE28UX8310 is more than adequate for casual gaming. Using a Leo Bodnar Video Signal Lag Tester, I measured a relatively quick input lag (the time it takes for the monitor to react to a controller command) of 11.4 milliseconds, which is a good indication that lag won't be an issue while engaging your opponents. The BenQ XL2430T remains our leader with a lag time of 9.5 milliseconds.

The WE28UX8310 consumed 33 watts of power in my testing. That's 10 watts lower than the NEC EA275UHD (43 watts) and 19 watts lower than the Acer Predator XB271HK (52 watts), but both the NEC and Acer monitors offer ECO power saving modes that reduced power usage to 34 watts and 40 watts, respectively. The WE28UX8310 does not have an ECO mode.

Conclusion With the Westinghouse WE28UX8310, you get a 28-inch monitor with 4K resolution and a very affordable $450 price tag. It offers a wealth of video inputs and has a fully adjustable stand, but its color and gray-scale performance are middling, and it suffers from significant color shifting when viewed from an angle. It's a good monitor for the money, but not a great one. If you want a big-screen UHD monitor that delivers accurate colors, wide viewing angles, and excellent highlight and shadow detail, the Acer S277HK is our Editors' Choice, but it'll cost you around $250 more than the WE28US8310.

As a Contributing Editor for PCMag, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, TVs, PCs, networking and smart home gear, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for almost 20 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of the Labs technical staff, as well as evaluating and maintaining the integrity of the Labs testing machines and procedures.
Prior to joining Ziff Davis, John spent six years in retail operations for...
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